End of a Career

I enjoy a great interview with an athlete to hear their perspective on what it took to become a top notch ball player. Some owe it to great parents or grandparents, while others credit a high school coach that took the time to push them to become a better person and athlete.

Some athletes may have had some great experiences once they started college and realized they weren’t the best player on the team anymore and putting more time in the weight room or extra time after practice would be necessary if they wanted more playing time.

I think we all remember that kid on the Little League team that was a head or so taller than everybody else.

Sometimes they quit growing and would end up losing interest once they no longer were the best and biggest player on the team.

Some of them had a late birthday and were able to play while their classmates were too old for Little League. I know for a fact that some of these kids did real well and were successful at the next level.

While others blended in and were average players or they decided that another sport was more to their liking. A lot of it has to do with how much fun they were having while they were playing a sport.

I’ve seen some coaches that made playing the game fun no matter what the outcome was. There were also a few coaches whose teams always won and those kids didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves, which makes me think that those coaches were more worried about the winning portion and less upon teaching the game and making sure the kids understood how to play their positions.

I’ve always felt that just because you have the best players and are winning doesn’t mean you are a great coach. But if you become a great player someone spent some quality time developing the fundamentals that got that kid’s attention.

I’ve seen some interesting interviews lately where teammates talk about a great player and some stories are hilarious. They may also talk about how hard this individual worked and the passion they played with and how those qualities rubbed off on younger players and earned the respect of veteran teammates.

If you played a sport, any sport, think back on the last game you played as a member of a youth team, Junior High team, high school team or college.

Did you win? Did you have fun? Are you glad you played?

I think the biggest winners are the kids that work hard to get better even though they may never improve enough to play at the varsity level.

They are happy to get to be a teammate and that type of school spirit is hard to come by. We also see the kid that sat on the bench for three years and for some reason blossomed before their senior season and became the best player on the team.

The sacrifices kids like this make are inspiring. It doesn’t always happen but when it does there are plenty of jaws that drop trying to figure out where this kid found their talent.

I’ve seen a lot of great players who worked hard and somewhere everything seemed to come easy for them because they were loaded with talent.

I’m pretty sure I know which one appreciates the successes that were earned.

Not every athlete is a good interview but everyone has a story to tell. At the end of a career some stories are a lot better than others.